Jemini

In case you decided to take me up on my offer to fill you in on the missing details if you skipped chapters 16 and 17, here they are.

Most of the important stuff was all in chapter 17, 16 was more just describing some stuff about meditation IRL as a sort of grounding. The major developments in chapter 17 were a description of the combat-oriented meditation Asaren uses. It has a distinctive aspect where you can use it both as a moving meditation and as a still "lotus position" style meditation. However, it actually is more effective if you use it as a moving meditation. As in, it is at it's most effective if you use it while performing or practicing martial-arts techniques, and theoretically it will only reach it's true peak of effectiveness if used in the middle of a real combat situation.

This meditation is interwoven with the martial art Asaren knows to the point that they are inseparable. You cannot learn the meditation without learning the martial art, and if you learn the martial art without learning the meditation then it will be dramatically less effective to the point of being almost useless.

The meditation focuses on 5 elements. Earth, water, fire, wind, and void (in that order.) There are also a set of five really short kata consisting of a single block followed by a single counter-strike. These 5 kata are named after the 5 elements of the meditation.

Everyone comes to the theory that this meditation may be related to the magical capability Tia keeps insisting Asaren has, and Rolwen encourages Asa to try one of the kata. She decides to go with the wind kata, figuring it will cause the least damage just in case the theory is correct. The wind kata winds up blowing a hole half-way through the wall on the other side of the room, and Rolwen says that her "air bullet" did as much damage as a 50 caliber bullet.

And that is about the point where chapter 17 left off. So, that covers everything you missed if you happen to have skipped those chapters.

Later that night, while the boys were asleep, I also wound up sleeping myself for the first time in a long time. It was strange. I did not remember falling asleep, but I found myself in a fairly lucid dream at some point. And, standing before me, was a large extremely well-muscled man wearing a white robe. From his back, there was a pair of perfect shimmering white wings. In every way, he was the perfect image of the popular idea of what an angel looks like.

I felt my stomach tighten and my senses go into high alert as soon as I saw him.

“Do not be afraid, child,” he said. “My name is Samarael. I was your guardian angel back on Earth, and I was finally able to reach you now when you used your power to open this world’s barrier.”

“My guardian angel?” I said, remaining vigilant. My entire being still screamed that I was in danger, but he did not seem to be taking any immediate action. “What do you mean by my power?” I asked.

“Calm, be at peace,” he said. “You see, you have a power that is very important to the lord. Others who have capabilities with magic, such as yourself, are often eliminated. But, you were special. Your dedication to the lord caused him to spare you and have you use your power for another purpose. You see, your power allows you to open the barrier that surrounds the world. It grants access to that which you call the void. However, it was also once called ‘the bottomless pit’ by John of Ephesus. I am certain one who has read the scriptures such as yourself can grasp the meaning behind this?”

“The bottomless pit into which all demons will be cast at the end of days,” I said, confirming that I followed his message. Meanwhile, that creepy feeling I had been getting was now screaming at me that this man’s words were dangerous. The lord eliminating people like me? Me being an exception only because I was willing to obey the lord? No, this is definitely no angel. Every word he speaks contains a poison to it.

“Indeed,” he said. “You had a very important role to fulfill back on Earth. But, that demon who attached herself to you, and now calls herself your sister, convinced you to cast yourself outside of the lord’s reach.”

The sense that something was wrong only grew with every single word spoken. Now he’s trying to attack my connection with Tiaren?

It wasn’t just his words either. Every last thing about this felt incongruous and creepy. The space around me was bright and white like we were up in the clouds, but it felt to me like the entire place might as well have been crawling with oily and decayed things.

The man claiming to be my guardian angel gave me a harsh look. He did not seem to be very pleased about my silence.

“You don’t believe me, do you?” he asked.

“How am I supposed to believe someone who simply shows up and then starts trying to appeal to my hubris by telling me I have some form of powerful and important destiny?” I ask him. “Especially when they are also telling me to turn against and distrust those closest to me.”

“That demon is the one who killed you, is she not?” he asked. “She appealed to you in a moment of true weakness. You know very well, having heard her explanation, that she was lying when she said your death was required to heal your granddaughter, correct?”

She never said my death was required to heal my granddaughter. It was in order to get her out of the world, and it was what I was doing to repay her. He’s going a step farther now, trying to make me remember the deal wrong in order to drive a wedge between us.

Samarael, if that was really even his name, stared down at me with a harsh expression when I did not respond. “Very well,” he sighed. “In that case, I will deliver you a warning. You have discovered the way to use magic. Because of this, soon, everything that is now around you will begin turning against you. However, at the end of the tribulations that will arise from this, you will be granted the power to change this entire world.”

Those last words simply made my hairs stand on end, and a feeling that was like nails on the chalk-board spread through my entire body like an electric current.

“Get out of my sight and my mind, demon!” I snapped at him.

“Really?” he responded. “Me? A demon? I am here to protect you.”

“Everything that is currently around me will turn against me?” I said. “You know something, I’m sure. You want to make me doubt my friends in this world and isolate myself. Make me vulnerable for manipulation! Perhaps your prediction of the future is partially true. You want me to think when a part of it comes to pass, that the rest of it will follow. And, you have gone and tried to appeal to hubris again. This is a deception and a lie, designed to appeal to the foolish. I am no fool. So, be gone from here! Your deceptions will not work!”

Samarael gave me a stern disapproving look and then sighed. “Very well, if that is what you demand. However, be vigilant. I have delivered my warning, and gave you the truth. There is not much else that I can do.”

-

As soon as Samarael finished his words, I woke up with a start, and immediately started gasping for breath.

“Asa! What’s wrong!?” Tia asked, and then Nymph quickly materialized her humanoid projection next to her.

“Demon!” I said as I caught my breath. “A demon tormenting my dreams, claiming to be my guardian angel.”

Tia stiffened when she heard what I had said.

“Well,” Nymph said, “that’s not something the demons from this world can do. Are you sure it wasn’t just a normal nightmare?”

I glared over at Nymph. “I do not normally need to even sleep!” I snapped. “This… thing lured me to sleep just to talk with me!”

“I… I… I’m sorry!” Tia said. “I… thought you were just tired from using magic, or it was because you made a change to your meditation, or…"

“Heh, actually, he commented on how I changed my meditation,” I told her. “He said it was because my meditation can open barriers around worlds or something. Said there was one around this world, just like the one around Earth.”

“Huh? The same thing?” Tia asked.

“You said the spirit energy of this world was a lot thinner than Earth, right?” I asked.

“Well, yeah,” Tia said. “Earth also didn’t have any fey, though. So, that let the spirit energy build up a lot thicker than it would have otherwise. I’m pretty sure the barrier around Earth was a lot thicker too. There was this one god that got super powerful because of all the people on Earth worshiping him, and now he’s able to keep the barrier up by himself and having it maintained by just a single god means there are fewer cracks and gaps. There are none at all in Earth’s barrier now.”

“No fey…” I said. Well, yes, nobody has actually seen fairies or elves around on Earth. There are a whole lot of stories about them, though. “Were there ever fey on Earth?” I asked.

“Huh? Oh, yeah! There were lots of faeries, and water spirits, and other things around when I was young and just got my divinity. The barrier somehow made it so they couldn’t be born anymore, and then the ones who were already around started to die out,” Tia said. “I think there was something about a special rule written into the barrier to make it so spirit energy couldn’t take physical form. It was to stop monsters from being born, but it affected fey too. They all either gained godhood or died out.”

“And so the energy just constantly grew more dense while mana died out,” I said. “Thus the reason there’s no magic on Earth.”

“Asa! Tia! Should you really be talking about this now?” Nymph asked. “I mean, are you ok now Asa? What about your dream?”

I shook my head. “I’m just trying to get my bearings on things,” I said, “and getting information about this world barrier stuff is helpful. This so-called guardian angel Samarael talked about it after all. That’s what his message was all about. Saying I had some unique power to open those barriers, and calling Tia a demon and trying to get me to hate her. The bastard even tried making me doubt Levin and Rolwen! And even you!”

I shook my head and started chuckling. “Demons lie and deceive,” I said. “Listening to his whisper will only cause me trouble. Perhaps I should just forget all of it.” But, even though I said as much, I knew deep down that it was something much easier said than done. The mere fact that I had let that bastard keep talking had probably already doomed me. He got his whispers in, and those whispers would play at my mind constantly from now on.

The most troubling thing was that, deep down, I also knew that he was probably telling the worst kind of lie when he gave me that troublesome parting gift. The kind of lie that was 95% truth. The demons of Earth were famous for being good at lying. Satan, famed as their leader, was also called the prince of lies. If this Samarael went in with the assumption I would see through him, he would definitely use this sort of lie. Because it was 95% truth, the act of avoiding or denying things just because he said them could do me a lot more harm than good.

In other words, I was damned if I do, and damned if I don’t. The mere act of hearing his words meant I’d already swallowed the poison.

Ok, here’s what I’ll do. The solution is quite simple. I will not trust anything I can’t independently verify. I will take his words and test each point one by one. His main point, the things around me right now will begin to turn against me, and the reason is because I learned magic. If I assume he meant the elves and the lie was including my close circle in the mix, it would make perfect sense. I’ve already seen plenty of strange activity from the elves to suggest something might go bad soon.

The question is, will it be my ability to actually cast magic now that will cause problems, or will it be the fact I’ve managed to conceal my spirit? Or, is it reverse psychology, and the problem will come if I go back to how I was before, allowing my powerful spirit to be plain for all to see?

Damn, that demon. I guess the best thing to do really is to just pretend he never said any of that after all.